Born in Hlebine, a small village in Croatian region Podravina......while his friends played hide-and-seek, he used a small branchlet to make drawings in the sand. From that time until he died he never separated from a pencil or a brush. In elementary school he liked painting lessons the most and his greatest joy was a sketch-book. The least he liked maths. As a child, to earn money for his painting material, he went to bowling and set up skittles for the players. Mostly he drew with pencil on paper bags in his uncle’s store. Those drawings were seen there by professor Krsto Hegedusic, in that time (1930) a student of art academy, who exclaimed: “This is superb! Who did it?!” The historic meeting between Hegedusic and young Ivan Generalic happened soon after that, as well as Ivan’s first public exhibition in Zagreb Art pavillion in 1931... In 1934 he married Anka Kolarek and had son Josip in 1936. He spent 1938 in military service and becomes the member of ULUH (society of Croatian artists) in 1945. In 1953 he exhibited in Paris, where he lived and painted for 2 months.... Of all beautiful critiques he received for his work, the one he liked the most was from French novelist and critic, Marcel Arlan: “He was born by the land. He possesses its sweetness, wisdom and charm. And he needs no other guides.” When asked why he paints, Ivan Generalic replied: “I don’t know, as I wouldn’t know to answer why I live.” He just didn’t know how to live without painting.... Ivan Generalic is the greatest Croatian naive art painter and one of the greatest world painters of this century. undefined

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